For those who don’t know, I used to host a radio program that covered various tech issues called General Protection Fault. On this program, back in 2001, I reviewed search newcomer Google with these words, “Good search engine. Fairly inclusive. May be onto something.” Seeking total digital domination, Google has also cornered the free email (Gmail) and mapping (Google Maps/Earth) markets. Now it’s time for Google to get social.

Google Wave

Google’s first attempt was with Wave, something they described in 2010 as “both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” It was basically a communication and online collaboration platform rolled into one package.

Google Buzz

Attempt number two, Buzz, was designed to share videos, photos, links, and status updates… just like Facebook or Twitter. The big difference was that it was all through Gmail. Both of these failed, sort of. I say sort of, because aspects of these technologies have been baked into Google+, the search giant’s answer to Facebook.

With a simple and elegant interface created by a former Apple designer, Google+ builds off another Google service, Profiles, and adds in all of the social features (friending, posting, liking) that you find on Facebook with the ability to follow people like you can on Twitter. Circles is the Google+ way of creating groups of friends that you can selectively share content with and control how they can connect back to you. Hangouts is a quick way to set up a video conference with up to 10 people while Sparks is an integration of Google’s email alerts honed down to its essence: letting you know about stuff you are interested in.

What’s the problem? Other than privacy concerns, which are a little vague at this point, none so far… except Google itself.

Google has a history of trying to build up buzz (ha) for products by doling out limited access to what they term ‘beta’ projects. Google Wave invites at one point were selling on Ebay for $70, and Google+ is no different, although the price is at a much more reasonable $15. Remember, these are FREE SERVICES.

Being that they want to test out the service before doing a full release, invites are limited, which means that the people using it are also limited. This, of course, leads to frustration because this is a social service and I have only been able to find three people to move around in my Circles. (Special thanks to Ephy for the invite!) I’m interested in seeing what happens when people I actually know have the chance to use this. Will they want to leave Facebook to jump into the thick of it with Google?

This brings me to the biggest issue I have with Google+: the complete and total lack of Google Apps support.

I am very familiar with this message.

I use a Google Apps account to manage all of my emails and communication needs. That means personal emails, work emails, Sun Star emails and just about everything else all comes into one account. I am logged in to my Gmail account all day long: managing emails, reading RSS feeds, chatting and more with no annoying ads to be seen. To use Google+, I have to actually log out and then log back in using my vanilla, ad-filled Gmail account, just in order to join this social revolution.

Considering that I pay for my Google Apps account, I would assume they would, oh I don’t know, release a feature for the paid version of their product before adding it to the free one. Granted I am in the minority… except when I consider that thousands of businesses and universities use Google Apps as the basis of their online communication infrastructure and this is potentially cutting out a very large and lucrative group of customers.

Along with the Google+ rollout in a few months, Google is also making some huge changes across all of their properties:

• Rebranding Picasa and Blogger into Google properties
• Removing private Profile accounts
• Adding a black bar across the top of all the Google services (including the search page)
• Changing the look and spacing of Gmail pages
• Upping the number to 10 accounts that Multiple Sign-In supports

With all of these changes, Google is going to have to start dealing with the same level of uproar that Facebook faces when a margin is shrunk or the text size is adjusted. Once Google+ rolls out to everyone, I am sure even more problems will surface. And no, the last change in the list that Google is making, the one about Multiple Sign-Ins, still doesn’t fix my problem.

Jeremy Smith / Sun Star Columnist
4/26/11

I have to say my year with The Sun Star has been pretty good. I wrote a column about tech issues, helped in the creation of an award-winning website, and discovered some pretty slick technologies in the process. In this final Random Errors column, I wanted to leave you with a list of things that I have discovered that have made my electronic like infinitely more bearable.

Dropbox

First off, if you don’t have a free account to this online storage service, you should really go sign up right now at Dropbox.com. It makes file collaboration, storage and the sharing of any type of file incredibly simple and easy. Offering up to 2 gigabytes of cloud-based storage, Dropbox is how the Sun Star was able to transfer story updates, photos, videos and more from the office to any computer that needed them. With an entire community exploring the ways you can utilize the technology (automatic computer backups, torrent downloading and more), Dropbox, like the venerable floppy, CD and USB drive before it, is one of the new ways to transfer your files.

Paint.net

Photographers and design professionals may scoff at this, but Paint.net (not a website but the name of the program) is the exact kind of image editor that everyone needs in a tech toolkit. An open-source program, Paint.net is somewhere between a basic photo editor and an advanced image-editing program. It supports effects, brushes and layers, but without the long load-times associated with Adobe’s powerhouse options. I constantly used this program to quickly resize images for posting or doing some last minute tweaks to website-bound photos. With an easy learning curve and the nonexistent price tag, this program was a bit of a godsend.

FileZilla

This is another open-source offering that I use to upload major changes to the website’s content and layout. Filezilla is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program that supports multiple connections, has simple instructions and offers complete control over every file hidden on a remote server. Regular updates and an active community are keeping this my Swiss Army Knife when accessing problem web issues.

WordPress.org

WordPress.org is less a technology and more a resource, but it has been invaluable in making the Sun Star website what it is. For those who don’t know, our entire website is built within the WordPress blogging platform. I’ve been using WordPress for the past four years and I still find new techniques through comments in the forums. WordPress.org exists as a clearing house of information for people not only hosting their blogs on WordPress’ servers, but specifically for those who self-host and develop their own themes and modifications. Reviews of plug-ins, widgets and must-have features are all neatly cataloged and easily searchable through a minimalistic interface devoid of ads. It’s a fairly painless learning experience.

After a year of writing about the latest and greatest in technology, I would love to read someone else’s views. They are always looking for more writers and reporters at the Sun Star, and being that technology changes so fast, perhaps next year you could be writing about the fad that was Facebook.

Jeremy Smith / Sun Star Columnist
April 19, 2011

A friend said that they kept hearing that you can’t buy the Flip video camcorder anymore, but that they are still for sale in stores, and wanted to know what gives.

For folks who don’t know, the Flip was one of the first affordable, ultra-portable video camcorders. It was created by Pure Digital Technologies and was marketed in CVS/Pharmacy stores as the “Pure Digital Point & Shoot” video camcorder in May of 2006.

The original camera was about half the size of a DVD case, had a 2x digital zoom and a pop-out USB connection for quick and easy uploads. Along with decent battery life, and a sub $200 price tag, it was entirely flash-memory based; eschewing the then standard tape- or disc-based recording systems. There was a single button for starting and stopping recordings and another to control the zoom. It was a simple two button affair that just about anyone could use with nearly no instruction.

In 2007, Pure Digital Technologies changed the camera’s name to Flip. New versions supporting HD recording and direct YouTube uploads flooded businesses. At the time, I was working for a local office supply store and spent a few hours running around the store taking the camcorder through its paces. It was rugged, extremely fast and ridiculously easy to use. Granted, you couldn’t really zoom in without adding digital artifacts, and the microphone was pretty lackluster, but you sure could accurately capture someone buying a palette of copy paper.

Cisco, the networking company behind the Linksys brand, bought the Flip name and related technologies back in 2009.  They revamped the line again with larger capacities and photography options, all at the historic low price.

The good times couldn’t last forever though. Cisco just announced that they were going to close down the Flip division. This means that you can still buy the Flip stock that is sitting in stores, but there won’t be any more made.

Tech outlets have been guessing about the reasons behind Cisco’s cancellation of the Flip. Mashable.com suggested that video cameras, “[are] as good (if not better) on modern smartphones” and that “phones have a built-in data connection and can upload video directly to the web.” In an interview with NPR, PC Magazine’s Lance Ulanoff echoed the sentiment that smartphones were the Flip’s downfall. “Why would someone carry a dedicated camcorder when they already have one on their phone?”

There are other options on the market that can fill the portable video camcorder niche, but the Flip was one of the first and most successful. At the 2011 Alaska Press Club conference, I learned about a reporter who covered this year’s Iditarod Sled Dog race. He used his Flip camcorder to capture comments and interviews with mushers as they entered checkpoints. The content was wildly popular according to his newspaper’s web team, and it shows a slick professional use for the now discontinued video camcorder.

Jeremy Smith / Sun Star Columnist
March, 22, 2011

Sometimes living in Alaska is just a huge pain. It’s not only the 40 below temperatures or the lack of sunlight, but also the sheer costs that we are forced to accept when having something delivered.

How many times have you been researching a product online, found the perfect price (with free shipping no less), only to discover that either: a) it is only shipped next day air at a price higher than that of the product itself, or b) only available in the “continental 48 states”?

I always question the company when it comes to the latter. If you look at a map, I argue, you will see that Alaska is indeed connected to the “continental 48 states” via a little tract of land called “Canada,” which is a part of the continent called “North America.” Of course, they tell me they just don’t ship to Alaska, or if they do, they won’t honor the free shipping price. I’ve had three recent events that just hammered this home to me, each one more ridiculous than the last.

First up is game publisher Ubisoft, maker of electronic fare such as “Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood” and “Prince of Persia.” Attempting to purchase one of these games through Ubisoft’s site is impossible if your credit card is from Alaska. There is no option for choosing Alaska. Thinking it was a programming oversight, I contacted customer service, assuming a quick correction and someone eager to take my money. Two weeks and five email exchanges later, you still cannot select Alaska as a billing option and I was forced to go to a local store to make my purchase.

Then there is Amazon. Granted, if you look up products with Amazon’s “free shipping” option they will ship to Alaska for free… usually. But it is their Amazon Prime service that drives me up the wall. Offered free to students, the normally $79 program provides special prices and offers on college essentials along with free second-day shipping on all orders. Well it does… except to Alaska. After asking them why, they pointed to their clearly worded “available only to the contiguous 48 states” buried in their terms of service. Basically, Amazon Prime for students in Alaska nets you extra spam messages.

My final incident deals with a technology I was going to review called OnLive. It’s a pretty slick idea of bringing games to you via streaming technology, requiring nothing more than the OnLive software and a fast Internet connection. This could potentially mean no more upgrading of components or purchasing game consoles in order to play the new digital hotness. After sending me multiple offers about their new TV adapter, which is free of charge with a game purchase, and seeing that my Internet speed was up to the challenge, I signed up and awaited my unit. Imagine my surprise when the company said that not only was my connection too slow to run the streaming software, but they don’t ship the hardware anywhere outside the lower 48.

Thankfully, OnLive refunded my money quickly and without any hassle, so kudos to them. But no shipping to Alaska, or Hawaii for that matter, again? Maybe it’s time for us to form a trade alliance with the Aloha state and cut off access to salmon and pineapples.

Jeremy Smith / Sun Star Columnist
March 8, 2011

I’m not a big video or PC gamer. There, I said it. But here is the rub, I love games. When people talk about games, I know as much as if I was one of the hardcore players. Level design, Easter eggs, key plot moments and pop-culture shout-outs are all a part of my gaming knowledge. Naturally, people assume I play a lot. I really don’t. I play maybe one or two games a week, and one of them is usually a simple match-3 puzzle (ala “Bejeweled”) or an “Angry Birds”-esque toss-the-thing-at-the-thing game. I guess I’m more of a video game voyeur than an honest player… I like to watch.

Perhaps “gaming evangelist” or “interactive digital theorist” are more fitting descriptions than “gamer” for me. That’s why I follow the gaming awards, because it’s a great way to just see at a glance titles I may have failed to notice over the previous year.

The Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) has been active for more than 25 years and is the gaming equivalent of the Oscars crossed with a learning-track conference. Heavy hitters from the gaming industry, Will Wright (“The Sims”), Peter Molyneux (“Fable”) and Sid Meier (“Civilization”) are all in attendance, often leading discussions regarding what direction is next for games. Start-up companies often show off beta (unstable), alpha (really unstable) or even pre-alpha (napkin drawings) code of their newest idea in the hopes of not only snaring new talent, but potentially finding a publishing sugar daddy to make their electro dreams come true. Among people in the gaming industry, the GDC has historically been where you go to get things done and get your game made.

Ten years ago, the GDC began their Game Developers Choice Awards by awarding a then unknown development team with the Rookie Studio Award and a game in which none of the characters speak a real language Game of the Year. The studio was the team who created Counter-Strike and the game was “The Sims.” The GDC has always been a pretty good forecaster at picking titles that really stand the test of time, and this year’s awards I almost completely agree with.

My favorite game of all time, “Red Dead Redemption” (which is like an interactive spaghetti western), took home Best Audio, Best Technology, Best Game Design, and Game of the Year. Newcomer Majong studios won Best Downloadable, Best Debut and the Innovation Award for their title “Minecraft,” which was made by one person. The game isn’t even out of beta yet, but it has hundreds of thousands of players traveling its blocky 8-bit terrain, smashing trees and pigs with their digital fists, in a completely open and randomly generated world.

A creepy and atmospheric Xbox 360 game called “Limbo” won the award for Best Visual Arts, in part to its black and white presentation and the marionette-like movement of the main character. Space action/role-playing epic “Mass Effect 2” won for Best Writing (agreed) and “Cut the Rope” is apparently the Best Handheld Game. That’s the only one I don’t agree with. It should have been “Angry Birds.” Of course, I haven’t played it. Hmm, it might be time for a download.

A few months ago, I developed this odd little spasm in the corner of my left eye. It’s not noticeable to people looking at me, but it is incredibly annoying. I couldn’t think of what to tie the cause to: is it diet, an increase in stress or maybe my embryonic twin trying to establish dominance over our shared body?  It’s not a twin… at least, not according to WebMD and MayoClinic.com.

An optometrist friend of mine told me it was possibly myokymia so I looked it up on WebMD. From there I was directed to Neuromyotonia, and learned it is associated with four different childhood syndromes and is a “rare neuromuscular disorder characterized by abnormal nerve impulses from the peripheral nerves.” I’m not sure if this is better or worse than having a twin.

The fact that this information is vetted by doctors and medical organizations and available for free online is something that the two founders of the company always had in mind. James H. Clark, a bit of an internet hot-shot what with his involvement in Netscape, wanted to create an internet-based system that would serve as a depository for medical and billing information. Jeffrey T. Arnold initially devised an idea for a web site that offered free healthcare information to consumers and subscription services to doctors. In 1999, the two merged and eventually became WebMD.

According to 2010 web rankings, WebMD is the leading health-centric website with more than 20 million monthly visitors looking up ways to cure indigestion or check their flu symptoms.

Of course, being the largest pill in the bottle brings with it a need to remain profitable. WebMD has been accused of everything from being in bed with pharmaceutical companies to skewing posted information so that it will add fuel to any hypochondriac’s most vivid disease-dream. Flashing ads for Lipitor, Cymbalta and other drugs assault you on each page. They have even added an entire section that caters to pet health. I’m not saying that this is bad, but it does show a certain kind of agenda.

This is where my favorite health website, the Mayo Clinic, comes in. It’s a non-profit, anti-agenda health resource that realizes you and I don’t have a golden ticket when it comes to medical costs. Everything from in-depth information about migraine causes to how to effectively prepare for your next doctor’s appointment is covered in a calm and clear manner.

After plugging in “myokymia” at MayoClinic.com, I learned that it is an involuntary spasm of the muscles around the eye, completely normal, and eventually goes away. A little less alarmist than WebMD, and what my optometrist friend meant for me to know all along.

Considering how much of a quagmire the United States health insurance industry is in, many people, including myself, will turn to a web-based resource rather than risk the wrath of an insurance plan that doesn’t cover a visit to the doctor’s office. It’s important to remember where you are getting your information from and to remember to always seek a second opinion, especially online. I’m just wondering if my deductible covers embryonic twin removal. I hope so.

By Jeremy Smith
Feb. 15, 2011

Question:

I keep hearing that the Internet has run out of addresses and that in 2012 the Internet may not work. True?

Answer:

Many websites are throwing around the idea that the Internet has run out of addresses. That’s not exactly true.  Basically, all of the IPv4 addresses have been allocated and we now have to migrate to IPv6 and make sure that all the bugs are ironed out before the government-mandated switchover date. Clear enough? No? Then let’s backtrack a bit.

Every machine on the Internet has a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. IPv4 (version 4) is the current numerical nomenclature used to identify all of those great websites you grew up with: uaf.edu, hotornot.com, gpfault.org, etc. IPv4 is how all the computers talk using their secret number language, whereas you and I use the easier to remember Uniform Resource Locator (URL), aka the word approach. For instance, the secret identity of uafsunstar.com (URL) is 66.147.244.206 (IPv4).

The biggest problem with IPv4 is the limited number of addresses it yields, somewhere in the 4 billion range. Being the avid web consumers that we are, and the increase in broadband connections that require a unique IP address, all of these addresses have been allocated. Not necessarily in use, but allocated to various universities, businesses and organizations. Keep in mind this doesn’t mean that all of the URLs are gone… I can still reserve nakedwheelbarrow.net just fine. It’s the IPv4 addresses that they link to that have dried up. This is where IPv6 comes in.

New kid on the block IPv6 will give us – potentially – more than 300 trillion addresses in the future. It’s also supposed to simplify the assignment of addresses and provide even more security while we view our LOLCats online. The most apparent difference between the two forms of IP addresses is the code used to identify computers. An average IPv6 address could look like this: 2001:0db8:85a3:8a2e:0370:7334.

By the time we are supposed to migrate to the new standard, which is set in malleable government stone for 2012, all of the major operating systems and web browsers will work with both IPv4 and IPv6. In fact, Windows XP and Mac OS 10.2 are already IPv6 compliant. More than likely, you won’t experience much of anything other than mild inconvenience as web hosts upgrade and move web sites around. The problem is the old routers and switches that make up the Internet. These devices can’t handle the IPv4 to IPv6 square dance.

This concern has been kicking around since the ’90s and companies have been upgrading and modifying equipment for the past decade, albeit slowly. A bunch of big tech companies (Google, Facebook, Cisco, and more) plan to take the new standard for a 24-hour spin on World IPv6 Day in June of this year. This should provide an idea of what, if any, real problems the migration may cause.

Since you remained with me for this long, watch this to see what will really happen when the Internet runs out of addresses:

Last URL On The Internet

By Jeremy Smith

Love is in the air. Well, maybe it’s just online. This is a love-themed issue, though, so I was tasked to write something a bit more apropos to the general feel of the paper. That’s why I bring you: online dating.

I’ve been a fan of online dating ever since they were called “personals” back in Yahoo’s hey-day. In my love affair with the online come-hither ad, I think I managed one date that wasn’t a total disaster, and a few others that probably were. However, even those bad experiences did not stop my interest in reading the profiles.

To me, the attraction of these profiles is a person trying to describe who they are in a fairly limited number of words. It’s like the exercise that you have to do in Journalism classes when you write your own obituary, humbling and highly revealing at the same time. A quick window into what someone considers the best and most appealing words they can string together about themselves, in the hopes of getting at least a quick message from a stranger who wants to learn more. To that end, I’ve put together a few sites that are good place to start, with which you might be able to have some success and disasters of your own.

OkCupid.com is my latest discovery and seems to exemplify some of the best parts of online dating: totally free, simple login, quick access to photos, compatibility summaries in easy to find locations, an abundance of weird and easy-to-do tests in order to support abovementioned compatibility summaries, and a fairly liberal amount of space to pontificate on how much you can’t live without your iPhone.

Speaking of iPhones, I turned a friend on to another site that I just couldn’t stomach joining, Cupidtino.com. Currently kicking around in beta for about $5 a month, it’s an Apple product-lover site in which you can find a, well, a fellow Apple product lover. They pride themselves on having a higher class of members – I guess because the number of people who use Apple products is really, really small – so, apparently, you are more likely to have a better result. My friend’s luck wasn’t so great, but she had a few interesting conversations with a fellow iPhone owner, so I guess you could chalk that up to a win.

The big box of chocolates in online dating right now is Match.com, which has been showing nonstop commercials about how their members have more “dates, relationships and marriages” than any other service. With this recent advertising push they also completely revamped the site with a wall of pictures. You can also quickly set up a free account and send unlimited “winks” to the folks who have caught your eye. Of course, being the biggest doesn’t come free, so to actually talk to someone, you need to pony up the cost of “a single date,” which is only available once you have made an account. I’ll save you some time: to get in the door you are dropping at least $35… which I think is a McDonalds-and-a-movie date, with no popcorn.

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day and if not, well, follow some of the links above and read about some people who want to. If you have had an experience, good, bad or ugly with online dating, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

By Jeremy Smith
Sun Star Columnist

2011. The year after we made contact and the year before the world ends.  It is also going to be known as the year of the tablet, as in, almost everyone reading this will either own or will have used one and realized a deeper need to possess ‘my precious.’ Or so the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) would have you believe. Also, 3D — and Angry Birds — everywhere!

After Apple cornered more than 85 percent of the tablet market in 2010 with their April release of the iPad, other manufacturers decided that it is time to give the people what they want the most: options… and make lots of that sweet, sweet tablet money.  In late 2010, Barnes & Noble unveiled their NOOKcolor, which is a seven-inch e-reader that has a touch-screen and runs Google’s Android operating system. At this year’s CES, it walked off with awards from multiple publications as the best new tech that is currently available. Granted, Barnes and Noble doesn’t position their NOOKcolor as a rival to the iPad, but intrepid hackers have removed various restrictions and created an inexpensive, touch-sensitive tablet that can access everything an Android-based cell phone can do. And play Angry Birds.

At this year’s CES, more than 20 manufacturers were showing off their version of the ‘iPad killer’ to a not-so-impressed press. However, Motorola revealed two products that work to fill that niche between full computer and simple e-reader and seemed to light a fire under those tech journalists’ cold hearts.

The device making much of the industry take notice is Motorola’s Xoom Tablet.  Complete with a dual-core processor, memory card slots, two cameras, Wi-Fi and 3G/4G support all running on version 3.0 of the Android operating system, the Xoom checks off all of the boxes that the iPad seems to be missing.

Motorola’s TRIX 4G phone approached the niche by cramming all of the features present in the latest smartphones, along with the ability to play and record HD-level video, into the candy-bar form factor… but with a slick twist. The phone can be plugged into a dock and become a full-featured netbook, complete with keyboard and monitor.

On the low-tech side, Rovio announced and released not only a PC version of their ridiculously popular bird versus egg-stealing pig app Angry Birds, but also a board game version. As in, one you play at home with a slingshot, some birds, some blocks and some pigs.  I am excited.

Of course CES also had the necessary explosion of gigantic televisions and in a nod to last year, continued to herald the belief that we all want 3D, without glasses, in every facet of our lives. Toshiba was the closest to offering glasses-free 3D in the living room through two TV prototypes, but actual prices and availability are several years away. Nintendo showed off their new 3DS, which provides portable 3D gaming, sans-glasses as well. This has been priced at $250 and is dated for a mid-2011 release.

I picked up a NOOKcolor myself over the holidays and I will definitely give you an update on how that works as an e-reader and low-cost Android tablet… and just how awesome I am at Angry Birds.

By Jeremy Smith
Sun Star Columnist

I realized that I don’t surf the web anymore, and it’s a fairly big revelation. I used to wander around based on what Alta Vista and web rings threw at me, mainly as a way to discover some incredibly odd and unique sites. One of the weirdest was nothing but fan-fiction celebrating the alternate lives of Smurfs. I even found the end of the Internet, something you too can find if you are reading this online. I don’t do this kind of discovery anymore. I follow links to content suggested via Facebook, RSS feeds and Google News. I haven’t just surfed around for awhile… until I found Kickstarter.com. This site awoke, to paraphrase a fellow columnist, web wanderlust.

Kickstarter.com, founded in April of 2009, is a way to fund creative projects through the idea of “crowd funding.” Crowd funding is turning to the net to provide micro-payments to finance a given project, which is similar to the Donate button you see on some websites. Kickstarter’s purpose is to provide funding so an idea can be fully realized, be it a movie, art project, software program or even indie music album. Kickstarter collects and processes all of the payments and provides them to the creative project, but your donation goes through only if the project’s goal amount is fully crowd-funded.

Similar to the world of public broadcasting, most Kickstarter projects offer gifts at various levels. Everything from buttons to t-shirts, custom designed artwork, and even a mention in a film’s credits are offered to backers at various monetary levels.

One of the greatest success stories from Kickstarter is that of Diaspora. Diaspora is “the privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distributed open source social network.” It’s essentially a do-it-yourself Facebook, and between April and June of 2010, 6,479 people pledged over $200,000 towards the program’s development. Their original goal was $10,000.

Back to my original thought, once I found Kickstarter.com, I started browsing again. A lot. I found a filmmaker who, with the blessing of Neil Gaiman, is seeking funding to recreate The Price as a CG animated film. A woman in Texas is making a radio documentary about mushrooms called “Conversations With Fungus.” Projects are presented with a video, a detailed description of the idea and a breakdown of funding levels all wrapped up in an attractive visual package.

Speaking of packages, my greatest find was “Santas On The Move: The SantaCon Robot Documentary,” created by UAF alum Nick Brewer. This project documents the SantaCon phenomenon, and his plan to build a robot Santa suit for the next SantaCon. On Oct. 1, Brewer surpassed his funding goal of $2,500 and is working towards putting out the final product on Christmas Day. Discovering unique ideas like this reminds me why I always enjoyed browsing the web. It’s great to know that I can not only do it again, but support some creative projects in the process.

By Jeremy Smith
Sun Star Columnist

I hate the new font size on Facebook. Like the other 500 million plus people on Facebook, I actually enjoy the service but hate it when they make bone-headed changes. It’s funny to think that the same people (i.e. me) who want a faster interface for browsing Netflix movies and a completely revamped operating system every two years throw a hissy fit every time Facebook adjusts a margin. I actually like change, and for the most part I’m happy with what Facebook has done (current privacy problems aside). But seriously, who can read this new font size?

From a simple way to see who else is enrolled in your college to a direct marketing connection between a company and its consumers, Facebook has a huge impact on the way information is transmitted and business is done. You can find links to general internet weirdness and pictures of friends in every profile. I was even offered a job through Facebook… the one I am doing right now in fact. You can even bring a company to its knees through Facebook, which is also happening right now to Cooks Source magazine.

According to Gizmodo, Monica Gaudio wrote a post for a blog that recently appeared nearly verbatim in Cooks Source magazine. After contacting Cooks Source directly, she was informed that, “the web is considered ‘public domain’ and [she] should be happy [they] didn’t just ‘lift’ [her] whole article and put someone else’s name on it.” Well that sure riled up the internet. The Cooks Source Facebook page is currently overwhelmed with wall posts ranging from renaming them “Crooks Source” to current advertisers pledging to cut ties to the magazine.

This means that Facebook, love it or hate it, is important. However, when I can’t read the content, that’s a problem. When I can’t post links and images how I want on Facebook, that too is a problem. Thankfully, I have a few solutions.

If you are running Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera, visit betterfacebook.net and you can easily install a user script (a small file that will override display settings) that will not only restore the original font size, but gives you control over 75 other features that dictate how Facebook looks in your browser. Static headers, tabbed news feeds and even highlighted comments are now possible with this user script.

When it comes to posting links and images, Facebook grabs the description from the source’s website, which may or may not have the right information. All you need to do is click on the highlighted yellow text that appears after you attach a link and before you post it. Then you can type in whatever you want to caption that picture of Batman Underoos with the words “Iron Man” emblazoned across the waistband.

Facebook may have changed the default font size back to normal by the time this column is printed, but at least you now have a little more control that should keep your posting, tagging and liking relatively stress free. At least until they make another change.

Jeremy talks and takes on technology at gpfault.org.

By Jeremy Smith
Sun Star Columnist

The earliest memory I have of reading a comic was in the local newspaper, and it contained one of the few words I incorrectly pronounced for years after. It was a Snuffy Smith comic and featured the word “c’mon.” To my young eyes, this word – which had never been spoken by a teacher or anyone I knew – was pronounced “sea-mon.” It’s hilarious to think what my parents thought as I read a comic out loud to them a few years later, using my idealized pronunciation. “It’s come on,” my mom said, taking a break from laughing. “It’s a contraction of come and on.”

The days of sitting around the table waiting for the comic section to be available, and the laughter to end, are over. Along with the ability to read Cathy and Dilbert online, the webcomic has arisen, a comic that’s not only available without wait, but is often catered to your exact interest. Thousands of artists have taken their passion and what art expertise they possess and turned to the Internet for their creativity outlet. Webcomics dealing with topics such as life at a help desk, the inner thoughts of a dinosaur obsessed with grammar, and the trials and tribulations of anthropomorphic foxes are already available online. Some webcomics are eventually released in printed anthologies while others are content to post comic after comic, for free, to eager fans.

The first webcomic I ever read was from Penny Arcade, a series that centers on the activities of gamers Tycho & Gabe. The one I remember featured the two protagonists questioning a Software Etc. worker about gaming consoles. Ultimately, their basic gamer inquiries broke the employee’s mind.  The jokes were insider-y and required knowledge of the gaming world.  They often ended with non-sequitors that didn’t – and still don’t – make sense, such as a wombat bag for carrying away ill-gotten gain. But I loved it. I still love it and read it as often as I can.

Over the years I’ve embraced all kinds of webcomics: from the tech focused Sluggy Freelance, PvP, Ctrl+Alt+Del and General Protection Fault to the more esoteric offerings of xkcd, The Perry Bible Fellowship, and Dinosaur Comics. I recently discovered Axe Cop from a t-shirt a friend was wearing. This webcomic is written by a 5 year old and illustrated by his 29-year-old brother. It may not be Shakespeare, but in some ways, it’s much, much better.

One of my current favorites is The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, a ninja who is also a doctor. Written and drawn by Christopher Hastings and billed as “An Internet Comic Book”, its been kicking around since 2003 and features Dr. McNinja as he punches snakes in the face, cures gigantism, and works with Judy, his gorilla receptionist. He also battles the duality within… being that he is both a ninja and a doctor, and quite good at being both.

I’m certain I’ve missed mentioning a few so I’d like to learn which webcomic is your favorite and why. Send your responses to Jeremy@gpfault.org so I can add a few more to my reading roster, and just maybe find a new word I can mispronounce.

Jeremy talks and takes on technology at gpfault.org.

By Jeremy Smith
Sun Star Columnist

Continuing with the questions from last week, we have one from a reader who purchased an internet package with a speed of “8 mbps/768 kbps” and “25,000 MB usage.” He wanted to know what all that means in terms of speed when downloading.

The first number, 8 mbps, is the download speed. The second, 768 kbps, is the upload. The 25,000 MB usage is how much data can be downloaded before you have to start paying overage fees.

Internet connection speeds are measured in megabits per second (mbps). This is different from the usage number, which is measured in megabytes (MBs). There is a whole “a bit is a string of data” explanation that I’m not going to go into because all of you know how to use Wikipedia, but I will tell you that even though they both have “mega” in front of their names, that doesn’t mean the numbers are interchangeable.

To solve the download speed question, it’s easiest to think of it like a math problem: if you want to download a song that is 5 megabytes and a movie that is 900 megabytes, how long will that take on an 8 mbps connection? After doing some bit to byte conversion math, I can tell you that an 8 mbps connection allows you to download at a speed of 1 MB per second, give or take some hundredths based on network congestion. In this scenario, it would take five seconds to download the song and 15 minutes to download the movie. That’s a download speed of 1 megabyte per second.

The real concern is that last number, the 25,000 MB (a.k.a. 25 gigabytes – GBs). Cable Internet provider GCI recently announced that they are doing away with their unlimited plans and creating limited pies of usage. I know this first-hand because I was recently hit with a $100 overage fee for exceeding my usage amount. Granted, 25 gigabytes is a lot of emails and YouTube videos of dancing cats, but with everything moving more toward “cloud” (online) distribution, this can disappear fast.

DVD powerhouse Netflix streams HD video at around 5 mbps. That means the 100 streaming minutes of cult western Django has consumed about 1,000 megabytes. A TV episode from Hulu streams around 700 kbps, so those 43 minutes of Castle cuts off a 240-megabyte slice. An hour on Skype can sneak a 100-megabyte bite. Figure in game downloads for your PC or console along with music and TV shows for your iPod and you may have eaten through your 25 gigabytes of data well before your month is up… and this is just looking at the media piece of the online pie.

What this means is you have to start thinking before you download. Having had unlimited downloads, I previously clicked with wanton abandon. But this mentality won’t work anymore, at least with GCI, especially when you start being hit with overage bills. You might want to begin by asking yourself if you really do need the first three seasons of Dexter in 1080p. Since my answer is yes, I guess I’ll just give up e-mail.

Jeremy talks and takes on technology at gpfault.org.

By Jeremy Smith
Sun Star Columnist

I’ve been seeking tech questions to integrate some Web 2.0 interactivity into this column, and I have the first batch of answers today. Since I tend to do a bit more than just throw out a website and some advice, I’ve been corresponding with the questioners and have some beefier answers below. This week, we happen to have a bit of an Internet theme going on.

A reader named Sara told me about an issue she was having with her DSL modem. For a little over a week, she was completely unable to connect to the Internet or her wireless router. After spending hours on the phone with tech support, it was deemed that they were not the problem. My advice in these situations is to do what Roy on the BBC show The IT Crowd recommends, “Have you tried turning it off and on?” Honestly, 9 times out of 10 that can fix your problem. In Sara’s case it didn’t.

The second key to troubleshooting network issues is to check and/or replace your devices and cables. Sara picked up a new DSL modem and reconnected it to her computer and still no Internet action. Tech support can see the modem, her computer can see that there is an Internet connection, but that’s it. This is when I asked if she replaced all of the cables, in particular, the Ethernet cable between the computer and the modem. She had not, even though she had a brand new one that came with the replaced DSL modem. She was still using the Ethernet cable that came with the first modem.

After replacing the cable, Sara’s system was checking email and streaming Art Bell’s Coast-to-Coast with the best of them. I’ve heard from some technology gurus that Ethernet cables can go bad over time, but rarely does one less than a month old stop working. However, just like the door handle that breaks or shirt that rips, things happen. Whenever I am called in to do some network troubleshooting, I bring an extra Ethernet cable just to make sure that’s not the culprit.

Thanks for the questions and I am looking forward to answering more in future columns. Send your questions to Jeremy@gpfault.org and we can shine the light of tech-knowledge upon the darker corners of computing.

Jeremy talks and takes on technology at gpfault.org.

By Jeremy Smith
Sun Star Columnist

It’s rare that I can explain something tech-ish to someone and have them not only get it, but also find an immediate benefit thanks to that knowledge. I’ve been using remote access program LogMeIn for a little over six months and I was just getting ready to write about the ways it could be used effectively; technical explanations on remote access DNA and how remote computer monitoring can make life as an IT director easier were potential, yet incredibly boring, approaches. Then I talked to my boss and discovered the perfect usage scenario: fixing a problem from home.

“LogMeIn offers its customers solutions in remote control, file sharing, systems management, business collaboration and on-demand customer support of PCs, servers, Macintosh computers, smartphones and other connected devices.” That’s the definition from their website. Here is mine: they make a computer accessible from nearly anywhere, and anything, with an Internet connection.

First, you need to set up a free account at logmein.com. Then download and install a 15 MB file on the computer you want to control. Once you set a password, you’re done. That computer is now accessible from almost anywhere in the world. Using another computer, or even a smartphone, you sign in at their website, select which computer you want to access and enter your secret password. You are now looking at your desktop. You can monitor resources, stream music, diagnose problems, create private download links and all manner of remote radicalness through LogMeIn’s intuitive interface.

But let’s go back to my boss. She’s getting ready for a month-long trip and isn’t looking forward to syncing everything from her desktop to her laptop and then back once she returns. I said she should try LogMeIn and just access her desktop remotely. After impressing her with the remote audio playback and printing support, she installed the program on her work computer, vowed to try it out herself and left for the day.

When she got home, she realized she had to make a few changes to a presentation.  It was nothing that couldn’t wait, but with an early morning meeting looming, it was hanging over her head. She went to logmein.com using her laptop and connected to the work computer. After making the modifications, she uploaded the final version to the server. It was five minutes of work, with only 30 seconds of it spent connecting. Presentation corrected and peace of mind secured.

I know it’s not a flashy, business-saving tale, but that’s the point. The software worked correctly, the first time, and for free. It was easy to use and felt like a part of the natural computing process. It makes sense to have access to all of your data from anywhere and remote access is a necessity for me as I move from system to system. If more technology functioned like this, we probably wouldn’t have nearly as many obstacles during our daily tech commute.

Jeremy talks and takes on technology at gpfault.org.